Physico-Chemical Character of Cytoplasm 349 



charge, will in their turn afford, by their entire or partial 

 oxidation, products of excretion and secretion quite 

 definite and differing from one cell to another. These 

 products, in their turn, thanks to their peculiar physico- 

 chemical properties, will imprint upon the protoplasm or 

 cytoplasm a corresponding physico-chemical character 

 and a corresponding morphological structure. So it is 

 conceivable how the ensemble of the mnemonic elements 

 constituting a given nucleus can determine its own proto- 

 plasm or cytoplasm both from the purely physico-chemical 

 and from the properly morphological point of view. 



\Ye arrive thus at a constant double correlation be- 

 tween the cytoplasm, the species of nuclear excitation, 

 and the substance of the nucleus. For the nuclear sub- 

 stance will determine directly the specificity of the 

 corresponding nervous current and its rhythm of charge 

 and discharge; and this specificity of current thanks to 

 the substances of dissimilation to which it will give rise, 

 will determine the respective cytoplasm. Conversely, the 

 specificity of the current or its peculiar rhythm of charge 

 and discharge, once determined by the functional stim- 

 ulus, will determine the substance of synthetization or 

 nuclear substance, as also the substances of dissimilation 

 of which the cytoplasm is constituted. 



Let us summarize what has been said. The specific 

 potential elements which have presented themselves in the 

 preceding chapter as specific elementary accumulators, 

 and at the beginning of this chapter as mnemonic ele- 

 ments, appear now as specific vital elements, that is as 

 the smallest possible particles of organic substance cap- 

 able of life. At the same time the denominations 

 potential element, and vital element, which might at first 

 have appeared incompatible with each other, if the 



